Using Scott's article on Character Portraits, I attended the Dickens Christmas in Skaneateles (NY) and got some great portraits of the characters from the Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge Young Scrooge, Father Christmas, Town's Folk and a singing Jacob Marley (he had a great voice) Begger Christmas Choir Singer I used Aperture priority mode at f/8 and fill flash. It was a good tune up for Mousefest next week.
Thanks, everyone! I think the one thing I took away from Scott's article was stepping down my lens a bit. Shooting at f/8 gets me into the sweet spot for the 18-200VR lens, allows for focus on the subject without soft spots and still gives nice out of focus (bokeh) backgrounds. The actors really made you feel like you were living in the time of Scrooge.
Here are a few from 1999 with a REALLY old point and shoot. Nothing as nice as the above, but I seriously enjoyed the "Dickens on the Strand" celebration in Galveston. We even dressed up that year! I'm on the right, my mom in the middle and my cousin on the left - no one else would dress up with us... This tree is in Moody Gardens - Galveston. It is entirely made up of potted poinsettia's. This is the view of the gardens behind the tree.
You and your family would have fit right in with those Dickens characters, prettypixie. In fact, I think Father Christmas was someone who had just dressed up and was walking about. He didn't participate in the planned skits.
